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Episode 391 - Chicago Coin Thing Refurb, Parade Info, Cheating and Bingos

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·27m 18s·analyzed·Mar 9, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Chicago Coin restoration complete; focus shifts to bingo motor repairs and multi-bingo finish.

Summary

Nick Baldridge details his ongoing restoration of a Chicago Coin wood rail machine, covering mechanical repairs including stepper adjustment, power cord replacement, flipper bat restoration, and playfield cleaning. He discusses unique design features like the dual-ganged flipper system, the "thing score" mechanism tied to a specialty knocker, and unconventional lighting (S11 bulbs, multiple lamp types). He also addresses corrections about the Parade bingo game and mentions upcoming motor work on his Caravan and Gate Time bingos, plus planned continued work on his multi-bingo project.

Key Claims

  • The Chicago Coin machine's playfield is significantly larger than a standard pinball playfield and cabinet

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing the machine's physical dimensions and why it was unsafe for his daughter to assist with certain repairs

  • The score stepper on the Chicago Coin machine uses an unusual triple-ganged wiper arrangement on the 100,000 stepper

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge explaining the technical challenge of resetting the score stepper and the unique design with brass strips at the million-mark positions

  • The original flipper bats on the Chicago Coin machine were marbled plastic, and replacements from a 1960s Godley machine lack the brass insert found in originals

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge noting the difference between original and replacement flipper bats and uncertainty about whether the brass insert was a Chicago Coin-specific feature

  • The Parade bingo game does include spot 2 and spot 18, contrary to what was stated in a previous podcast episode

    high confidence · Correction from Phil Bogoma via note to Nick Baldridge; the spots exist but lack illumination indicators on the back glass

  • The Chicago Coin machine uses scene illumination lamps rated at 15 watts with an S11 envelope, which are difficult to source

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing his solution of installing two 7.5-watt S11 lamps as a compromise

  • The Chicago Coin machine has a ball gate that opens every 200,000 points (adjustable threshold) and a central post with rubber below that allows balls to bounce back up to the flippers

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing the gameplay mechanics and safety feature of the gate system

Notable Quotes

  • “she somehow has the good fortune to flip just a second before the ball actually contacts the flipper and then the ball winds up underneath the flipper”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~middle section — Humorous anecdote about his daughter Sophie's repeated difficult loss on the Chicago Coin machine despite the ball-saving gate

  • “boy, that thing makes a lot of noise”

    Nick Baldridge (quoting his wife's reaction) @ ~middle section — His wife's complaint about the startup sequence noise during troubleshooting, highlighting the knocker mechanism firing repeatedly

  • “I'm staring at this stack of playfields beside me and realizing that I need to get on the ball and get the rest of the games programmed in and ready to go”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~end section — Indicates substantial ongoing work on multiple games, particularly the multi-bingo project

  • “The wood that was used for this playfield is particularly beautiful. I'm not really sure what kind of wood it is, but it certainly shines up very nicely, and it's got kind of a tiger oak type pattern to it.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~playfield restoration section — Detailed observation about the machine's construction quality and aesthetic appeal

  • “Every time they mention the box they replace the contents with this odd rhythmic tapping and in the game this tapping is actually simulated with a special cam on the score motor which will fire the knocker”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~theme mechanics section — Explanation of how the game's theme (based on Phil Harrison song) is mechanically represented through the knocker/cam system

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonPhil BogomapersonChicago CoincompanyGodleycompanySophiepersonPhil HarrisonpersonChicago Coin ThinggameParadegameNightclubgame

Signals

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Detailed technical work on resetting a triple-ganged 100,000 stepper with brass strip design; lubrication solution rather than clock spring modification

    high · Extensive explanation of the stepper's odd wiper arrangement, the brass strip configuration at million-mark positions, and the final lubrication fix applied

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Chicago Coin playfield had significant ink wear to bare wood in high-traffic areas; tiger oak-pattern wood underneath revealed during cleaning; sunken inserts present restoration challenges

    high · Nick discussing ink wear patterns, wood visibility, and the cupped insert problem on the keep-out-of-here light that traps slow-moving balls

  • ?

    restoration_signal: S11 15-watt scene illumination lamps are difficult to source; Nick compromised with two 7.5-watt S11 lamps; also notes importance of correct lamp wattage for bumper caps to avoid melting

    high · Nick describing the sourcing difficulty: 'I was able to find 15 watts, but not in an S11, and I was able to find an S11, but not in 15 watts'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Chicago Coin machine uses both flipper coils ganged together to fire simultaneously regardless of button pressed, allowing hold-up capability without true impulse design

    high · Nick explaining: 'you can hold the flippers up...just both coils are ganged together in order to fire at the same time, regardless of which button is pressed'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: The Phil Harrison song 'The Box' theme is mechanically represented through a special cam on the score motor that fires the knocker during 'thing score' events, demonstrating thematic sound design

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.082

0:00
Welcome back to For Amusement Only, this is Nick Baldrige. Well, it's been another two weeks, and let's see what kind of progress I've made.
0:12
Absolutely none. Still working though, just very slowly. But things are about to happen, hopefully. Big things. So, what I've mostly been doing the past two weeks is doing work on client machines and also fixing up the Chicago coin thing that I picked up a while ago. All the paint had been removed, I believe, as of last episode, and so I had started working on the mechanics.
0:51
And this initially was going to be a project that my youngest and I were going to work on together. However, once I got into it, there were certain things which I wasn't comfortable teaching her how to do on this particular machine, and I'll explain why.
1:08
But, first let's start with what she was able to do. She learned about the function of a Jones plug and learned how to clean those. she learned about the function of a stepper and how to clean those and disassemble, lubricate, reassemble ensure that the springs were on correctly all that good stuff and she learned about carbon ring bumpers and how the rings wear out and she learned about relays and their function, but did not clean or adjust any of those switches.
1:51
So I'm hoping that for the next project, she'll be able to help me, which will be RoboFrenzy, in a little more detail. Some of the assemblies in RoboFrenzy should be more rigid or durable, I guess is the word, and I will be less afraid that they will simply snap into nothingness. so that's really the reason why she didn't help much further than that also this machine is a lot more difficult for a child to work on than an adult and that's because the playfield itself is very very large it's much larger than a standard pinball playfield, and the cabinet is larger than a standard pinball cabinet, and I was worried about, you know, getting the playfield in the game and having to adjust something underneath the playfield and her getting hurt. So I just said, you know, you'll help me clean the underside of the playfield. You can help me clean the top of the playfield, but, uh, you know, I'll, I'll handle all the troubleshooting on this one. So what, uh, ended up happening was exactly that. She ended up helping me clean, uh, and adjust the steppers on the underside of the playfield and cleaned the Jones plugs, and then I took care of the rest. So, I had the playfield out of the cabinet in order to remove all the white paint, and I just had it standing up against another game, and she was able to clean the underside very easily that way. Um, the playfield, I want to say, is a bit taller than she is when it's standing just on its end like that. So, um, it was, it's quite a, quite a game. So, uh, put the playfield back in.
Caravan
game
Gate Timegame
Multi-bingogame
RoboFrenzygame
For Amusement Onlyorganization
Pinside Forumorganization

high · Nick describing how the rhythmic tapping from the song is 'simulated with a special cam on the score motor which will fire the knocker that happens when you get a thing score'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Original Chicago Coin flipper bats were marbled plastic; replacements from 1960s Godley machines are compatible but lack brass insert found in originals; uncertainty about manufacturer-specific design

    high · Nick noting: 'The replacements...are from a different game. This one from the 1960s from Godley...The only difference that I see is that there is a brass insert...But yeah, that brass fitting inside was no longer there'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Cotter pins holding flipper linkages experience metal fatigue over time and fail; replacement required on Chicago Coin machine

    high · Nick describing left flipper failure: 'the left flipper plunger linkage and spring were just lying in the bottom of the cabinet...the cotter pins that they use...over time, the metal fatigues and off it comes'

  • ?

    community_signal: Active Pinside Forum discussions occurring on bingo mixer unit disassembly and cheating methods; an outstanding question remains unanswered

    high · Nick referencing: 'There's been some good discussion on there recently about disassembly of mixer units as well as cheating a bingo...there's still an outstanding question which I don't think has been answered'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Nick managing multiple simultaneous restoration projects: Chicago Coin (completed), multi-bingo (primary focus), Caravan bingo (motor issues), Gate Time (motor issues), and RoboFrenzy (queued)

    high · Nick stating: 'I'm staring at this stack of playfields beside me and realizing that I need to get on the ball and get the rest of the games programmed in and ready to go'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Chicago Coin machine features an illuminated shooter gauge similar to the United machine Nick owns; allows precise measurement and honing of plunger shots through external markings and internal plastic insert guides

    high · Nick describing: 'there's a cast on top of the shooter lane...has measurements on the outside of this cast, which allow you to very much hone in your shot from the plunger. It's pretty cool'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple bingo machines (Caravan, Gate Time) experiencing motor-related noise issues (high-pitched whine, horrible noises) that persist after lubrication; may require motor disassembly, clutch replacement, or control unit work

    high · Nick noting: 'Caravan, I need to just break it down and redo the motors on that. They make a horrible high-pitched whine...after lubrication...Gate Time, the ball lift motor needs to be taken apart and cleaned and lubed...horrible, horrible noises'

    • 4:11
    Uh, I had wired in a new power cord. The old power cord disintegrated. and had been spliced into two other lamp cords at some point in the past. So with a brand new power cord, I figure put it inside a bundle underneath the staples, which hold the wires and guide them through the game.
    4:38
    So it fits in with the original wiring. it's just a plain old computer cable with the ends pre-stripped so it's nothing super fancy or period correct or anything of that nature but it was easy to put it in with the original stuff the staples handily expanded to hold that so all good now I plugged it in.
    5:14
    In the back, there are another couple steppers. And in most wood rail games, there are a couple steppers, which are very important. These are the score steppers. So the illuminated score, which is displayed on the back glass, will tick up using those two steppers.
    5:35
    So it's very important that those be clean, crisp, all that good stuff. However, on an older stepper, it can be very challenging to get it to step appropriately and also to get it to reset appropriately.
    5:50
    The challenge that I had was resetting. Stepping was no problem. So there's a couple things you can do to adjust for that. One is to change the way that the clock spring attaches to give it a little more power or give it an extra winding. Both of those I am very hesitant to do. but will do if needed.
    6:13
    In this case, it wasn't necessary. What was necessary was a little extra lubrication on the rivet side.
    6:24
    The wipers on the 100,000 stepper were triple ganged. It's a very odd wiper arrangement on that game, I think.
    6:40
    They have multiple switches basically connected together which illuminate the different panels on the back glass but it kind of funky when you get to a million. At a million, they have a single copper strip, which goes across, or it's brass, I suppose, but it goes across from 100,000 to 900,000, and that's your one million. Then they do it again for two million and so forth. Well, the problem is that strip sits proud of the bakelite disc and much more proud than a rivet would. And so it needs a little extra lubrication in order to actually make the large ascent and descent properly, smoothly, quickly, All that good stuff. It's not generally a problem stepping up, but resetting it is.
    7:46
    So, I was having some trouble with reset until I gave it a little extra lubrication, and now it works beautifully. However, the reset sequence is pretty weird on this game.
    7:59
    Essentially, the score hovers at 900,000 until the 10,000th stepper reaches zero. And 10,000 is a continuous stepper, so it'll step in increments of 5 because that's how the score motor allows for incremental movement of the 10,000 until it hits 0, at which point it will increase the 100,000 stepper to 0. It's kind of funky, but it works. depending on the score that was displayed and how far it has to reset. You may not ever see that. But if you have a high enough score, you definitely will.
    8:45
    At least that's my experience. It is also possible that one of the fingers on the 100,000 stepper is slightly maladjusted. However, it does keep score quite appropriately and it does always reset to zero. So I have a feeling that that is appropriate and just weird. So, other things of interest. This game has two flippers, which will both pulse at the same time when you push the flipper button. And normally, that would be an impulse flipper. However, this isn't a true impulse flipper. It's just both coils are ganged together in order to fire at the same time, regardless of which button is pressed. But you can hold the flippers up. much to the chagrin of Sophie who manages to lose a ball even though there's a ball saving gate there in the center she somehow has the good fortune to flip just a second before the ball actually contacts the flipper and then the ball winds up underneath the flipper it's really unfortunate it's happened to her twice as I've talked about on this podcast previously this game is a total package in my mind at least it's got a wonderful art package it's got a great theme and the gameplay really supports both the art and the theme so thing is based off of the Phil Harrison song of the same name and in that song a man finds a box on the beach which has some unspeakable horridness inside and he takes it and shows it to various people and they have really adverse reactions to him showing this box and every time they mention the box they replace the contents with this odd rhythmic tapping and in the game this tapping is actually simulated with a special cam on the score motor which will fire the knocker that happens when you get a thing score and the way that this game works with scoring you can earn a special by increasing your points up to a certain value, or your score, rather. So I have mine set to award special at 3 million and on, at which point it'll light the side lanes, and you can earn special if you can hit the side lanes.
    11:35
    But another way to win is based off of your thing score. Up at the top, there's an array of bumpers, two pops and then three passives and if you hit all of them you earn one thing score it is fairly easy to ricochet from left to right side and knock out at least two of these thing bumpers with each ball but your central target and also in fact the central target of the playfield is this huge plastic box and when you fire into the mystery box, you increase your thing score. You also get a random amount of score added, some multiple of 50,000.
    12:23
    So one of the things that my wife really detests about this game is when I was troubleshooting the startup sequence and you would hear the multiple of 10,000 fire many times until it finally zeroed out. So she said, boy, that thing makes a lot of noise.
    12:48
    So if you increase your thing score up to some adjustable amount, mine is set to start at 10 and go from there,
    12:58
    then you'll earn a replay for each additional thing score. so the other way to get a thing score and this will complete your bumper series is if you hit one of the side lanes when it's not lit for special and when you do this you get the familiar and you increase your thing score it's pretty cool and the way the inserts are arrayed on the playfield is pretty spectacular Now to the playfield itself it was in really good shape However there were a few areas where previous ball travel and lack of maintenance had worn the ink down to bare wood The wood that was used for this playfield is particularly beautiful. I'm not really sure what kind of wood it is, but it certainly shines up very nicely, and it's got kind of a tiger oak type pattern to it.
    14:05
    I assume it's maple, but I have absolutely no idea outside of that. At any rate, it is beautiful, and that started to shine through in a couple places that were particularly dirty, and I was a little discouraged, but it's really not that bad. the inserts however are sunken but they're installed from underneath the playfield and they're very large so I'm going to have to think of an appropriate approach for this filling's not going to work because it's just going to drip down and it'll make a huge mess similarly I can't really cut from underneath because it will destroy the insert. They're not press-fit in like most other inserts.
    15:00
    So I'll have to figure something out, and it'll probably end up being some kind of fill. But for the moment,
    15:10
    the only one that's really a big problem is the cupped keep-out-of-here insert, which lights when the ball gate goes up. and at that point you can lose your ball. Well, this insert is cupped. And it's cupped in such a way that it's normally not really that much of a problem, but occasionally you'll get a slow-moving ball and it'll get trapped in there because it's so big. It just can't escape. So I will have to do something. I'm just not sure what yet.
    15:46
    I certainly don't want to make it worse. and many of the things I can think of to do would make it worse, so I'll figure something out. At any rate, other than that, the game is super lively and fun. I really didn't have very much trouble with it.
    16:06
    I had to adjust a few switches, and I noticed a few switches had been replaced in the past. At one point, I was playing a test game, and the left flipper stopped working altogether, said, huh, that's really funny, opened up the game, and the left flipper plunger linkage and spring were just lying in the bottom of the cabinet. Now, luckily, those aren't made out of metal, which they are, and that flipper position isn't right over top of the transformer, because boy, that would have been bad. At any rate, what failed is the cotter pins that they use to hold those linkages in place.
    16:51
    For the buttons and the linkages, as well as a few other items on the playfield, they use these cotter pins which are just inserted through a slot and then folded around. And over time, the metal fatigues and off it comes. So I replaced that and all is well. The other thing which I was sad to see were the original flipper bats. One of them was very badly cracked, and the other was warped fairly significantly.
    17:28
    I did end up having to replace those. The cracked one was missing, you know, a big chunk of it. So it was time.
    17:38
    The sad thing about that is that the original plastic was marbled, and the replacement flipper bats that I had are from a different game. This one from the 1960s from Godley, but they used the same type of flipper bats.
    17:55
    The only difference that I see is that there is a brass insert running all the way through the center of the flipper screw area that allows you to screw the flipper bat onto the shoe, onto the paw, and through the bushing.
    18:16
    But yeah, that brass fitting inside was no longer there. So I don't know if that was a Chicago coin thing or if that's really common on original bats and they just didn't reproduce them like that because it would be ridiculously expensive to do so.
    18:38
    But whatever the case, the new bats work perfectly. The flippers are nice and snappy, and the game is a lot of fun.
    18:47
    You need a well-timed, well-placed shot to make it into that mystery box. but it is doable. So I mentioned the gate at the bottom. That gate will open after you reach a certain score threshold. I have mine set to open every 200,000 so every 200,000 points that you earn that gate will open and it will no longer be safe to fall down the center. The gap between the flippers is fairly wide so you need some pretty good nudging skills But below that gate, there is a post with a rubber on it. And from that, you can bounce back up onto the flippers, which is a lifesaver. It's wonderful to do that. You feel very good when you do.
    19:40
    It's when you don't that you don't feel good. But yeah, the game cleaned up very nicely, and I'm very pleased. It's really great. One thing I will say is that the scene illumination lamps, this game used an odd mixture of lamps, and I find it pretty interesting. Behind the back glass, all the lamps are 55s. 55s are kind of the hotter globe-style lamp that are used especially in bingos.
    20:15
    So that was kind of cool to see. but then there are two scene illumination lamps. This was common for older wood rails where there would be a large portion of the artwork which should be illuminated perhaps the game title in this case And they illuminated by what looks like light bulbs And they look that way because they have a standard screw-in base and they run at 120 volts.
    20:46
    But they are not standard light bulbs. You have to pay attention to the wattage rating and make sure that you get something with the same envelope. So the envelope on this game is an S11, for anybody who happens to need one,
    21:05
    and they're 15 watts. Now I was able to find 15 watts, but not in an S11, and I was able to find an S11, but not in 15 watts. So I ended up putting in 7.5 watts each with an S11 base. This allowed the lamp itself to remain far from the back glass, but it is much dimmer than the original. Now, the original bulbs were completely burned out, so I have nothing to compare it to other than the improper 15-watt bulbs, which I went ahead and bought a pair just to see what it looked like. it provides nice illumination but the bulb was too close to the original glass for my taste I don't want to burn the artwork away having just got the game working so aside from that there are screw-in lamps which are used on the playfield under the bumpers and it's important to use the appropriate one otherwise you'll melt the bumper caps which are, of course, irreplaceable. So make sure you use the right type, which is number 50.
    22:22
    And then there's a single 63 lamp. Again, fairly common in older games for large areas of illumination where they needed a bright lamp. In this case, it lights up the shooter gauge. so you've heard me prattle on and on about the United game that I have and how it has an illuminated shooter gauge and how cool I think that feature is well this game has it too and it allows you to measure your plunge in a similar way there's a cast on top of the shooter lane which aside from a plastic insert which has different marks inside has measurements on the outside of this cast, which allow you to very much hone in your shot from the plunger. It's pretty cool.
    23:21
    So I'm loving the game, having a great time, and getting ready for more projects. Now that that one's finished, I'm going to move back to working on the bingo full-time. Not just any bingo, the multi-bingo. But there are a couple of motor things that need to be done on my standard bingos. Caravan, I need to just break it down and redo the motors on that. They make a horrible high-pitched whine. and that's after lubrication.
    24:06
    So I need to actually crack open the casing and see why they're screeching so much. I may end up having to take apart the control unit or the mixer shaft and make it so that they stop screeching like that.
    24:24
    I may need new clutches. I'm actually not certain. So I'll take a look. And then, gate time, the ball lift motor needs to be taken apart and cleaned and lubed and put back into service because it is making some horrible, horrible noises.
    24:45
    So, correction corner. I got a note from Phil Bogoma, who's been on the podcast several times, and he is working on that parade. Parade is a follow on to Nightclub and it also uses the magic squares but it's the only game with extra lines which reveal so he wanted to let me know that in fact in my episode about Parade I mentioned that there was no spot of 2 or 18 he let me know that that wasn't in fact true it does spot them there's just no light on the back glass to indicate what was going on there.
    25:29
    Good luck, Phil, with your project. I hope to hear all about it at some point soon. And other than that, we're having some pretty lively discussions over on the Pinside Forum about various bingo aspects. There's been some good discussion on there recently about disassembly of mixer units as well as cheating a bingo. I'm going to link that thread in the show notes so you can read it because it's pretty informative. But there's still an outstanding question which I don't think has been answered unless my wild guess was correct.
    26:16
    But I assume that it's not. So definitely check that out. And if you have something to add, Feel free to add it.
    26:24
    I'm staring at this stack of playfields beside me and realizing that I need to get on the ball and get the rest of the games programmed in and ready to go and then start making improvements. But to do that, I've got to finish the art. So I'm going to get back to it. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can reach me on the bingos line that's 724 bingos 1 724-246-4671 you can listen to us on itunes stitcher pocket casts via rss on facebook on twitter at bingo podcast and you can follow me on instagram also at bingo podcast where you can listen to us on our website which is for amusement only.libsyn.com thank you very much for listening and i'll talk to you next time